i don't drink coke or soft drinks very often but i went to a Five Guys recently (burger, fries, coke = a party in my mouth and you're all invited!) and they had one of those....i drank probably 6 gallons of coke. "hmmm....what would coke, wieth cherry coke, with vanilla coke, then with MOAR cherry coke, then with cherry vanilla, THEN coke orange taste like!?!!?"

suckerpunch:I farking hate those machines. I always get half of cup of the flavor the person in front of me selected, and it's usually some disgusting combination like raspberry vanilla cherry coke.

I just hate going through the farking menus just to get a soda. Plus, the lines to the soda machines are longer. A bunch of the BK here in Orlando swapped out the dual manual systems for a single Freestyle rig. Why does a soda dispenser have to be tech heavy?

Meh... Saw this at the theater for the first time the other day (I'm Canadian), not impressed.

"you mean you can add artificial fruit flavours to my glucose-fructose and co2? Excellent, but only if I get to wait behind a bunch of people tapping at the machines slowly like monkeys and you charge me 5$ for a cup."

About the last thing I need is MORE choices. There must be at least 200 cracker, 300 cereal and 60 soft drink choices at my grocery store. Beer is another thing that has too many choices. I'm getting overloaded.

When they have to reboot the drink machine, technology has gotten too silly.Saw it happen at a Noodles & Co. after they changed out the flavor cartridge.Was like changing the ink in a printer, very strange indeed.

There's nothing worse then watching some 5 year try to reach the touch screen for a drink. At least most of the old people walk up to the counter and have an employee get their drink from the drive through dispenser.

rooftop235:suckerpunch: I farking hate those machines. I always get half of cup of the flavor the person in front of me selected, and it's usually some disgusting combination like raspberry vanilla cherry coke.

I just hate going through the farking menus just to get a soda. Plus, the lines to the soda machines are longer. A bunch of the BK here in Orlando swapped out the dual manual systems for a single Freestyle rig. Why does a soda dispenser have to be tech heavy?

I like 'em. Most "manual" drink fountains have a failure rate of 40% it seems. It's either too flat, flavorless, etc. This gets it right. It's not too much on the fizz, and frankly I like it that way. More, I say!

Jim_Callahan:austin_millbarge: rooftop235: Why does a soda dispenser have to be tech heavy?

It's not "tech heavy", it's about as easy to use as a toaster. The problem is the general public barely has the brainpower to scratch their own asses, so it just seems like it's hard. (see: ATMs)

Maybe he means "tech heavy" in the sense of having a lot of points of failure? Kind of weird to have your soda machine die because of a firmware update.

Yes, that is what I am referring to. I do not see why it is necessary to have a soda machine that costs a fortune (one BK mgr said $10k) for dispensing drinks. Well that and just going through a menu to get a soda dispensed. It is kind of neat how the cartridges work, though. Additionally, they can only dispense 95 drinks per hour. There are some places here in Orlando that serve way more than that, and the lines really do get long.

/People who take forever at ATMs make me crazy. Maybe my problem is the whole standing in line and waiting...

rooftop235:suckerpunch: I farking hate those machines. I always get half of cup of the flavor the person in front of me selected, and it's usually some disgusting combination like raspberry vanilla cherry coke.

I just hate going through the farking menus just to get a soda. Plus, the lines to the soda machines are longer. A bunch of the BK here in Orlando swapped out the dual manual systems for a single Freestyle rig. Why does a soda dispenser have to be tech heavy?

[hartmansalt.com image 360x243]Came from GIS

Seriously, I saw one of those machines at Zaxby's during lunch (i.e., peak hour) and it wasn't that backed up. Seems like a good idea, actually.

Jim_Callahan:austin_millbarge: rooftop235: Why does a soda dispenser have to be tech heavy?

It's not "tech heavy", it's about as easy to use as a toaster. The problem is the general public barely has the brainpower to scratch their own asses, so it just seems like it's hard. (see: ATMs)

Maybe he means "tech heavy" in the sense of having a lot of points of failure? Kind of weird to have your soda machine die because of a firmware update.

There were several in my area. All of them have been removed. The problem was, partially, having to make 3-4 selections just to get a 'basic' drink. Then there were the anal fissures who had to spend 4 days gawking, looking through all the menu options, fiddling with shiat, all while 10 people were stacked up behind them, which irritated customers. Also, touch screen + public + fast food = super amazingly disgusting filth and grease smeared screen.

But in reallity, it seemed like the things broke down a lot and needed a lot of babying. About half the time I'd go in something would be broken (or the whole thing would be down), and the employees would be scrambling to fix it, calling a tech, a tech would be working on it, or they'd just be filling drinks from the standard one behind the counter anyway.

It seemed like a good idea, but the technology just isn't viable. No one really wants it, it's not filling a need or anything. Maybe if they rolled the things out consistantly enough people would get 'used' to the technology, but as is, people just move up to a flavor valve and push it. Multiple people can fill multiple drinks at once if they're not competing, and you don't get cross-feed between the flavors.

Thought it was really cool the first time I saw it, but rapidly wore very thin on me.

rooftop235:Jim_Callahan: austin_millbarge: rooftop235: Why does a soda dispenser have to be tech heavy?

It's not "tech heavy", it's about as easy to use as a toaster. The problem is the general public barely has the brainpower to scratch their own asses, so it just seems like it's hard. (see: ATMs)

Maybe he means "tech heavy" in the sense of having a lot of points of failure? Kind of weird to have your soda machine die because of a firmware update.

Yes, that is what I am referring to. I do not see why it is necessary to have a soda machine that costs a fortune (one BK mgr said $10k) for dispensing drinks. Well that and just going through a menu to get a soda dispensed. It is kind of neat how the cartridges work, though. Additionally, they can only dispense 95 drinks per hour. There are some places here in Orlando that serve way more than that, and the lines really do get long.

/People who take forever at ATMs make me crazy. Maybe my problem is the whole standing in line and waiting...

ramblinwreck:rooftop235: suckerpunch: I farking hate those machines. I always get half of cup of the flavor the person in front of me selected, and it's usually some disgusting combination like raspberry vanilla cherry coke.

I just hate going through the farking menus just to get a soda. Plus, the lines to the soda machines are longer. A bunch of the BK here in Orlando swapped out the dual manual systems for a single Freestyle rig. Why does a soda dispenser have to be tech heavy?

[hartmansalt.com image 360x243]Came from GIS

Seriously, I saw one of those machines at Zaxby's during lunch (i.e., peak hour) and it wasn't that backed up. Seems like a good idea, actually.

If you do, colored folks will start playing jazz music and looking at white women, and your local newspaper will start printing on hemp paper instead of wood paper. And we can't have any of that, since it makes Baby Jesus sad.

A lot of naysayers, but I love it! I never drink regular soda anymore, and only drink diet. It sucks that 97% of restaurants only offer Diet Coke/Diet Pepsi, and 2% actually throw Coke Zero in the mix. But with the Freestyle, I can get different flavors if I want. Who knew that there was such a thing as Fanta Zero? I've only seen it in the Freestyle machines.

rooftop235:suckerpunch: I farking hate those machines. I always get half of cup of the flavor the person in front of me selected, and it's usually some disgusting combination like raspberry vanilla cherry coke.

I just hate going through the farking menus just to get a soda. Plus, the lines to the soda machines are longer. A bunch of the BK here in Orlando swapped out the dual manual systems for a single Freestyle rig. Why does a soda dispenser have to be tech heavy?

[hartmansalt.com image 360x243]Came from GIS

Yeah...that is the downside of those things. As cool as they are and as great as it is to have so many choices, the inventors seriously underestimated the stupidity of the population in being able to figure out how to get a drink out of it.